


Imperfect Perfection

by Itisjustmyself



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Big Time Bang, Blood, Community: Big Time Bang, F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Physical and Mental Abuse, Slight swearing, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-31 23:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itisjustmyself/pseuds/Itisjustmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kendall Knight has seen a lot of horrible things in his lifetime as a special agent for the FBI. Murders are always horrible and gruesome, and he can’t even count how many times he has wondered how morbid people can be. But this case tops them all. Dozens of bodys, all abused and somehow there seems to be no solution to it all. </p><p>And it’s not like he would admit it, but Kendall’s grateful for the team of scientists supporting him, because it helps a lot not to be alone, when faced with the abyss of humanity. He’s grateful, for every single one of them, except maybe Dr. Asshole Diamond, who thinks he is oh-so-amazing, just because he has degree from so fancy university and is oh-so-good-looking, when all he really is, is a complete and utter asshole. </p><p>But as each new clue adds to the horrifying puzzle forming in front of his eyes, Kendall slowly learns more about James. Because maybe there’s more to the asshole than seems to be and maybe there’s a reason he is the way he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AU. Inspired by the tv series ‘Bones’ and the novel ‘The Innocent Bone’ by Cody McFadyen. Warning ahead, in case you are triggered by child abused, blood, murder, bones and all that stuff, I wouldn’t recommend this fic for you.
> 
> So, this is it. My entry for the Big Time Bang over at livejournal. 19k of fic.  
> I know the goal was meant to be 20k, but really the fic was done and I don't want to just write down anything to reach the word count. So that's all there is to it.
> 
> I want to thank my great beta [breila_rose](http://breila-rose.livejournal.com/) who let me bounce off ideas and what not and of course to [dirtywerk](http://dirtywerk.livejournal.com/) for her amazing art which you can find at the end.

 

**Prologue**

_I had never believed in perfection. Never. Those perfect lives, people claimed to have, were nothing, they were all just façade and one day something would happen - and this something might be tiny and seemingly unimportant - but it would tear a crack into this perfect façade and slowly the truth would start to shine through. No matter how perfect anything seemed, there was always that tiny flaw in it and that flaw would one day ruin everything. Maybe sometimes it took time for the flaw to become visible, but it would appear one day. Something was always there that was not perfect. Perfection did simply not exist._

_All those stories were fairy tales, invented to entertain kids, but just not true._

_I did not believe in love. Why? Because the perfect love story was the same kind of stupid fairy tale that just did not exist in reality. Nothing ever worked perfect for all eternity, no matter if people wanted it to or not. One day, somebody would just go and screw it all up. Probably, most of the time people did not intend to, did not mean to screw anything up - or maybe they did - but perfection didn’t exist and so there was always a flaw to find, and this flaw could be used to destroy this meant-to-be perfection. It was a nice little idea and some cute stories to tell to your kids, but it all came down to the fact that it was nonsense and just did not happen in reality._

_Maybe some would call me a burned child and they might be right with it, maybe I was too pessimistic, but I just didn’t, couldn’t believe in it. I had wanted to, of course I had, like every other child in this universe and I really did believe in love and perfection and all that stuff. Once, a long time ago, I believed in it all._

_What happened to me? I grew up. Simple as that._

_The one thing I had always thought as perfect as a kid, was the relationship my parents shared. They had seemed so perfect, our family had been your typical dream family, happy parents, happy child. It had all seemed perfect, perfect, until I had watched it shatter into a million pieces at their feet. I had watched the tears roll down their faces, listened to the screams and the sound of breaking places and one night in this World War III, I was living in, I had decided, that I would, no could never do that. I had stopped believing as I watched my parents tear each other apart, piece by piece. Because, if a relationship as perfect as theirs had been broken, how could anything last? Perfection didn’t last. Perfection didn’t exist. It might, for a few short moments, seem as if you were close to perfection, but there was always that little flaw, that would one day, cause the whole thing to come crashing down._

_I just simply didn’t believe that life could be perfect._

 

~°~

 

The amount of alcohol in the systems of the four young adults was already quite high, when they decided it would be a good idea to move their little party into the woods that bordered on the campground. Most people were long asleep and it took them quite some time to reach the first trees even though they were barely fifty feet away from them. The shrill giggling of the two girls echoed between the trees and all of them jumped in shock when the scream of an owl cut through the darkness that surrounded them. Yet the shock on their faces was quickly hid by hysterical laughter. The woods were creepier as they had thought, but of course nobody wanted to admit that and so they kept going further, the trees slowly swallowing all light that was left, leaving them in almost utter blackness.

They all were pretty close to completely smashed and so the first three did not notice the cracking sound beneath their feet. The last one of them to pass the place was the youngest of them, and she did notice. Her foot got caught in a branch that lay on the ground and due to her currently limited reflexes, she fell to the ground. She turned her head and looked to the left and suddenly she was dead sober.

The scream that left her lips echoed through the woods, shaking everybody who heard it to the bone.

 

~°~

 

Crime Scene Inspector Stetson was still rubbing sleep out of his eyes when he reached the crime scene. He was tired. Fifteen minutes ago he had happily been lying in the arms of his fiance and now he was out here. The night was quite cold, compared to the heat that pressed down the people over the days. Jett sighed deeply. Due to the information he’d gotten out of the call he had received earlier, he knew to expect a dead body. A dead body that wouldn’t exactly be appetizing, he was sure of that. Technically he was a summer person, but the high temperatures did really not make his job any easier. The bodies smelled rather horrible and looked even worse due to the heat. By now he had reached the crime scene. Another deep sigh escaped his lips when he saw the bottles in the hands of the four young adults. It was moments like these when he really loved his job.

“I’m CSI Stetson and here to investigate in this case. Which one of you did find the body?” He asked slowly, his professional attitude kicking in.

“Me.” A quiet voice answered and a petite blonde stepped forward.

“Could you please direct me to the body, Miss?” He continued and she motioned over to a number of bushes.

“Thank you, Miss.” He nodded at her before pulling his flashlight out and making his way over to where she had directed him. The ground was rustling beneath his feet, the mixture of leaves, moss and branches crunching when he stepped on them.

It took him only a few minutes to find the body and his concerns had only partly been true. The body did in fact not look appetizing, but the smell wasn’t as bad as he had expected. He wasn’t a specialist but the body looked as if it was only dead for some days. It was a woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, although he couldn’t be sure. He walked a few steps from the body away and looked around. It was a normal quick procedure. His flashlight wandered around the ground and then he saw it. Or to be exact, he saw them. And he knew that he wouldn’t be the one to investigate in that case.


	2. Part I

****

**Part I**

Across the town Kendall groaned as he rolled over in his bed, his hand fumbling around the night stand trying to find the ringing phone. After quite a couple of failed attempts, he finally managed to grab it and pressed the answer button before holding it to his ear.

“Yeah?” He asked, his voice thick with sleep. 

“Good morning, Special Agent Knight.” A voice he didn’t know answered him. “My name is Gustavo Rocque.” 

Kendall shot up in his bed, quickly rubbing his eyes. He wasn’t one to bow down in front of authorities, but that was the deputy director of the FBI, so a little more attention might be appropriate. 

“Good morning Mr. Rocque. What do I owe the pleasure of talking to you?” He questioned politely. 

“Agent Knight, I am calling to tell you, that we would be interested to have you on board for a very special case.” He answered him. 

“That sounds interesting. May I ask what kind of case we are talking about?” Kendall was curious. A case so important Gustavo Rocque called him personally for? That was surely something special and exceptionally.

“This morning a number of bodies were found on federal grounds. You would be working together with a group consisting of the best scientists there are and a very successful lawyer. The case is important and we would like to have an agent on board of it. May I count you in for the first team meeting at 8:30?” He was told. 

That in fact sounded interesting. Normally the FBI didn’t work together that closely with scientists, so Mr. Rocque had him wondering what case that was. Then again he preferred to work alone without a team, but working alone currently meant a shit load of paperwork since there weren’t many cases in his normal daily job at this time. So, why not actually try this out? It was only one case right now, so if he hated it, he could easily drop out afterwards or if they failed to solve the case, they probably wouldn’t be working together anyways. 

“Yes, you can count me in.” He answered his boss. “Where is the meeting?” 

“It’s in the large conference room on the second floor. You will get more details and meet your partners there.” The deputy director told him. “Thank you, Mr. Knight.” And the line went dead. 

The young special agent sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair which was still quite messed up from sleep. He turned to look at the watch that lay on his nightstand and sighed. It was already eight. He had to get moving.

Fifteen minutes later he had showered and shaved. Dressed in his suit pants, with the white shirt still undone, he popped a piece of toast into the toaster and pressed the button on the coffee maker. He buttoned up the shirt and just grabbed a tie when his toast jumped up. Leaving the tie undone around his neck, he bit into the toast before flushing it down with the now finished coffee. Once he was done his short breakfast, he tied his tie, pulled on his suit jacket and seconds later he was out the door, in his car and on the way towards the FBI.

~°~ 

When he reached the FBI building it was 8:28. He quickly got out the car and made his way into the building, striding through the hallway with large and fast steps, while pulling his aviators off. The elevator dinged and he stepped out, already halfway towards the large conference room. He reached the glass doors and saw a group of people already sitting around the large wooden table in the center of the room. He stepped through the doors and immediately all heads turned in his direction.

“It’s nice of you to join us, Agent Knight.” Gustavo Rocque spoke. “Take a seat. Ladies and Gentleman, my name is Deputy Chief Gustavo Rocque and this is Dr. Kelly Wainwright.” 

Rocque was an average sized man, with a brown beard and close to no hair on his head. Kelly Wainwright was quite a few inches shorter than him with dark skin and black hair. Honestly Kendall didn’t completely understand what she was doing here. Normally she worked with her squints at the institute and was never seen anywhere else. And now that he thought about it, quite some of the people around him were dressed in lab coats, signaling they might in fact be some of Wainwright’s squints. Squints was the name the FBI used for scientists, because of the squinting they often did when they were examining something. 

“So, now that finally all of us are here,” Kendall deliberately ignored the side glance he got thrown. Not his fault he didn’t arrive early when they only tell him half an hour before. “I want to introduce you to the FBI’s newest project which will be held in cooperation with the Wainwright Institute. All of you are considered to be part of this project. Caused by a recent case that is yet to be solved, we decided to call a new team to life. A new team you can be part of.” Rocque’s voice boomed through the room, capturing the attention of all people in the room.

“The idea behind it all is to combine the investigation talents of the FBI and the intellectual work of our Institute and by that solve the case efficiently.” Kelly spoke. She seemed almost quiet and shy after the previous speaker, but the way she carried herself and the serious look in her eyes showed clearly that she wasn’t a woman to be messed with. “You all are here because you are the best this country has to offer. And together you should be able to solve more cases than normal investigation teams.” 

Kendall looked around the room more closely. Those people were supposed to be the best the country offered? Half of them looked like they were stuck up snobs and the other half probably couldn’t make scrambled eggs without mommy’s help. 

“So, the only question left is, are you willing to join the team?” Rocque ended the little speech. All around the room he was met with nods and agreement, Kendall guessed that probably all of them were curious what this was about and that most knew that this might be a great chance as well as an offer you probably couldn’t really deny anyways.

Rocque and Wainwright added a few more details, explaining a few formalities about the partnership and left the group with a stack of files, consisting of a bunch of information about the case they were to solve. 

“Well, I guess I’ll start. My name’s Lucy Stone and I am a prosecutor.” The tiny dark haired woman with the fiery red streaks was the first to speak up. It was a rather unusual look and didn’t seem all too professional, but Kendall knew that the results she brought in spoke for themselves, no matter what she looked like. He sent Lucy a smile over the table. The two of them had already worked together on a large number of cases and had gotten to know each other quite well. 

“Camille Roberts, reconstructions and stuff like that.” A rather short brunette with almost white skin exclaimed. She looked bubbly and not exactly the type to spend her life in a lab, and this was even more 

“I’m Jo Taylor. Forensic pathologist.” A cute blonde smiled across the table. She was one of those dressed in a lab coat. 

“My name’s Carlos Gracia. I’m an entomologist.” He was a small latino that seemed to be bouncing in his chair. A wide smile was stretched across his face, showing a bunch of toothpaste commercial white teeth.

“I am Dr. Logan Mitchell, psychologist and profiler for the FBI.” Kendall nodded shortly, he also knew Dr. Mitchell, not that closely, but he remembered one or two cases where the profiler had helped him greatly. He was a shy person, that didn’t speak all that much, but he was really, really good when it came to understanding motives and character types of offenders. 

“And I am Dr. James Diamond, the forensic anthropologist of this group.” He was tall - Kendall himself wasn’t the shortest, but that guy over towered him quite a few inches - with shaggy brown hair and hazel eyes. Good looking, if it wasn’t for that higher-than-tough look he carried on his face. 

”And I am Kendall Knight, currently working as a Special Agent at the FBI.” Kendall finished up their little introduction round. He grabbed the files in front of him and started handing them around before taking one himself.

“The bodies should be transported to the Institute.” Dr. Diamond spoke after glancing over the sheet. 

“I agree on that. It would make our jobs easier if we had all of them at one place.” Dr. Taylor added. 

“I’d like to check the place they were found and the bodies themselves for any particles.” Dr. Gracia agreed. 

“I must admit I am not so sure how this works, but do you think you can identify some of the bodies by doing facial reconstructions, Dr. Roberts?” Kendall questioned. He really had no idea, he had never worked with somebody doing facial reconstructions. Mostly the cases he worked on had victims that still had faces to identify them by. 

“Firstly, I am not a doctor and second yes, I think I should manage to do that. And what do you all think of calling each other by the first names? We will probably be stuck together for quite some time.” She answered laughing slightly. 

“Alright, Camille.” Kendall laughed back, the other people in the room also agreeing quickly. “How about Carlos and I then go check out the crime scene? And later we could meet up at the Institute?” 

“I think that’s a good idea. Although James and I should join you, it’d be helpful to see the bodies at the scene.” Jo interjected. She was playing thoughtfully with her long blonde ponytail as she read through the files. 

“Well then I suppose I’ll go back to my bureau. I still got quite some other stuff to work at and it doesn’t look like you will need me all that soon. You can call me up once you need a search warrant or something along those lines. K’s got my number.” Lucy spoke up. She had closed the paper binder that contained her copy of the files and had pulled her jacket up from the backrest of her chair. “See you all soon.” She then added with a wink in Kendall’s direction and left the room, her boots loud against the linoleum floor.

“Who is K?” Carlos asked confused once the door had slammed behind the prosecutor.

“Me.” Kendall laughed. For somebody with a doctor title he seemed a little slow on the uptake. Who else should it be? “She somehow started calling me that and hasn’t stopped since.” 

“So you know each other?” Logan questioned. 

“Yeah, we’ve worked together before.” The blonde haired agent replied. He didn’t really feel like mentioning more and really it wasn’t like it mattered anyway. “And I assume all of you know each other?” 

“Yes, there aren’t so many people at the Wainwright’s. You get to know each other.” Jo answered.

Kendall slapped his binder closed and got up from his chair. “Okay, shall we head out then?”

~°~ 

“If the information on here is correct, the crime scene should be about here.” He said as they passed the trees of the small wood. “And here it is.” Kendall then added when he found the typical yellow and black crime scene tape. He lifted the tape upwards before motioning for the other three to walk through. Jo and Carlos smiled thankfully at him as the slipped through, James on the other hand just walked through. And okay, it was not like it killed Kendall not to receive a thank you, but it would have been the nice thing to do. They were only a few feet away from the tape when a guy in the typical CSI uniform appeared next to the small group.

“Good morning. My name’s Stetson. I am supposed to show you the bodies.” He spoke.

“Thank you Mr.” The special agent replied. “Those are Dr. Diamond, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Gracia and I am Special Agent Knight.” He introduced the group as they all followed the CSI further into the woods.

Kendall really wasn’t prepared for what he saw shortly later. He had seen a lot of horrible things, although he wasn’t that long in the job, but what he found was shocking. The body that had been found by the girl was not decomposed much, but you already could see the bloated skin and its sickly yellowish color. Around it where unbelievingly many bodies, bodies of every size and shape. And his heart clenched when he caught the size of what once must have been a baby, now lying on the dusty ground, nothing of it left but a few bones. It was horrifying, how many there were. It’s not like he could say how they died, but left this case really a different option than murder? Could somebody leave over twenty-five people, that died naturally just in the woods to rot without burying them? Kendall couldn’t really believe it. This seemed to just leave the option of murder. A horrible murder, because such a number of victims couldn’t be explained by a simple murder that happened out of jealousy or revenge. This was insane; the person who would do such things had to be insane. Or at least he hoped so, because he wasn’t so sure whether he wanted to live in a world where mentally healthy people did such things.

“Agent Knight?” A voice called from behind him, pulling him out of his thoughts. 

“Yes?” He turned on his heel, looking up to Officer Stetson who was stood next to him. 

“Maybe now would be the time for me to give you the information I have received from the people that found the bodies?” The CSI spoke, holding up some sheets of paper all collected in a binder.

“Sure, yes. Let’s leave those three to do their jobs and go over to your car?” He suggested, motioning over to the three squints. 

The officer nodded and started walking over to the black hummer that was parked just outside of the crime scene. Kendall got handed over the binder containing the files, which he quickly looked through, noticing the carefully taken photos and the countless notes along the edges. 

“I see you have done all of the work here already.” Kendall spoke impressed and thankful. This made his job a whole lot easier. Stetson was a second eye that had looked over the information and his notes might give him helpful new points. 

“Well, I do my best.” CSI Stetson smiled at him. 

“Mr. Stetson, if it would be okay, I’d probably like to contact you later on again. It might be helpful to get your insights and impressions, since you were the first one at the crime scene, when the investigation has processed.” And he wasn’t just saying that to be polite. The files were so perfectly organized and thought through that Kendall was sure that Officer Stetson might infact give helpful insights. 

“I’d be honored, Agent Knight.” Stetson nodded his head shorty. 

“I’m Kendall.” He smiled and stuck out his hand. 

“Jett.” The older officer smiled back, shaking the hand he was offered. 

“So, Jett, tell me what do you think of the case. Any ideas you might want to share?” Kendall was curious. Obviously he hadn’t really had the time yet to think the case through completely. Jett on the other hand had probably been out here some hours already and surely had thought through some ideas already. 

“Well, this has to be murder, most definitely serial murder. It’s too many bodies to be a coincidence and I can’t believe that there should be no connection between the victims. But what is strange is the fact that the bodies are of so different concerning age, sex and stuff, normally serial offenders have a type.” Jett told the younger officer. 

“Yeah, I know what you mean. And I think I’ll try to ask the squints to try and find a connection between the bodies.” Kendall replied. Thoughts were already flying through his head, trying to put the pieces together and to find clues that would help him find the person who did this. 

“I definitely think that this is a good idea, because I fear the chances of finding fingerprints or DNA might be rather small since most of the finding is probably decomposed too much. You’ll probably get further if you concentrate on the links.” Jett continued. 

“And I am thinking of maybe checking out the databases, it’s rather likely that the offender has committed crimes before.” Kendall added. 

“Kendall?” Jo asked as she walked up to the two men. 

“Yeah?” The blonde officer turned around to look at the forensic pathologist. 

“We’re done. It’d be time to call the people to take the bodies to the Wainwright’s and to head there too, if you are finished.” She told him and Kendall nodded.

“Alright, let’s get the other two. See you soon Jett.”

~°~ 

The lab and the offices of the squints he was now working with where huge. In the middle there was a large platform with a number of screens, medical and scientific instruments and some examination tables. Around the platform there were a lot of rooms, all with glass walls. Some were labs and others were the offices of the squints. To Kendall’s surprise some of the bodies were already being wheeled in and placed on the examination tables.

“I don’t know how you work and what to expect, so do you think you’ll be able to identify some of the bodies?” Kendall asked while the group watched several workers place bones on the tables. 

“We should be able to identify them all. With some we might be lucky and get DNA results easily, others we’ll try with the dental records and then we have Camille. She should be able to give all of them a face if you give her a day. So, you should get the first names in about one hour.” Jo answered him.

“You can identify them this fast?” Kendall questioned surprised. He would have expected it to take way longer to get a name to those skeletons, that all pretty much looked the same to him anyway.

“There is a reason we are the best in the country, Kendall.” Carlos laughed. “I’ll go check out if the place we found them is the place they were murdered, alright?” 

“You can do that?” It was not like he was going to admit it, but he was quite impressed by what the squints claimed to be able to do. 

“Sure, most of the times at least, I take particles from the places they are found and their bodies and compare them. And sometimes I can find a link to some other place, since certain plants, types of ground and animals only live in certain conditions.” Carlos babbled before stalking off to one of the glass offices which was stuffed with supernatural looking instruments. 

“Okay.” Kendall called after him. “Get back to me when you are done.” 

“Well, then come on.” Jo spoke from besides him. “I’ll show you the platform.” 

Kendall trailed after the blonde scientist. The platform was a little elevated, four steps above the regular floor and stuffed with screens, instruments and examination tables that were slowly being filled with the bones and remains of the bodies. James was already leaning over the bodies, studying them with concentrated expressions. 

“I’ll go over the three or four bodies that still have flesh in a few minutes. Just quickly showing Kendall around.” Jo told her colleague. 

“Okay. I am busy for now.” James replied without even acknowledging Kendall. “I’ll call you when we find something.” He then added and turned towards the bodys again, leaning so close over the bones, his nose was almost buried in them.

Jo and Kendall walked on while she explained some stuff he needed to know about the institute, like where the bureaus and so on were. 

“So, how does this work? Do I wait here, or do I go back to the bureau and wait for you to call, or?” Kendall asked once they were done with the small introductory tour. 

“You stop asking questions and get yourself a coffee across the street.” Jo laughed and motioned towards the exit. “We’ll have the first stuff in maybe twenty minutes or so, and before that you’ll only annoy people around here.”

~°~ 

And in fact, when he returned about fifteen minutes later, he found the group of scientists huddled together on the platform. They were all standing around a computer and heavily discussing something.

“I am willing to exchange coffee for information.” Kendall exclaimed as he entered the platform, only to cause a loud alarm to go off. 

Jo raced towards him and pulled some kind of check card through one of the pillars at the edge of the platform. The loud noise stopped and Kendall caught sight of James rolling his eyes and running a hand through his hair. 

“Okay, we are going to get you your own card as soon as possible, so this doesn’t happen every time.” Jo exclaimed before pulling him towards one of the examination tables. “James?” She then prompted, looking up at the tall brunette. 

“We have twenty-three bodies. Six women in their middle or early twenties and seventeen children, ages between maybe three months and fourteen or fifteen. I’ll have the concrete data later this afternoon. All show signs of regular abuse, especially beatings. I have yet to confirm whether those match.” James rattled off, voice monotone and dry. 

“So, you think they were all beaten and murdered by the same person?” Kendall asked, because really was there a different explanation? What were the chances that one monster beat them and another one killed them all? 

“I have yet to find proof for this.” James replied, nose already deep in the bones again.

“Yes, but do you think...?” Kendall tried again wanting to get a clear answer.

“I have yet to find proof for this.” James repeated in the same uncaring tone. 

“Give it up and wait. You are not going to get an answer. James doesn’t do guesses.” Jo told him shrugging.“We are currently running DNA scans and Camille has already started to do some facial reconstructions. Those can later be compared to the missing person files. Maybe we’ll get a match and some identities out of it.” 

“Alright, how long do you think this all will take?” Kendall asked curiously. He had no idea how long a facial reconstruction might take nor exactly what is was.

“Well, you can hit up Cami right now. She should already be done with the first few. DNA will take until tomorrow, I fear. Those analyses take a little time. Anything else?” Jo looked up at him questioningly. She really was a tiny thing, even though she was wearing heels. 

“Nope, nothing else right now. I’ll check out those facial reconstructions now and then I’ll head over to the bureau. If there’s anything, you got my number.” Kendall shook his head and smiled thankfully at her.

The special agent turned around and made his way over to one of the rooms along the glass walls around the platform. Camille’s bureau was a large room with a huge computer in the middle. The screen was hung up on the wall and more similar to a projector canvas than to an actual screen. On the side there was a small couch, several chairs and a small table, and that was the place where the brunette was seated, pencil in her hand and sketch pad on her lap. Next to her Kendall could already spot several sheets of paper. 

“Jo said you might have a few faces ready for me?” The artist looked up at him, a faint smile on her lips. 

“Yes, four are already done. If you want you can take them with you and check them out at your bureau or I can do it, but then it might take a little longer.” She said and picked up the sheets next to her, holding them out in the blonds direction. 

The FBI agent took them from her, quickly flipping through the pages, surprised at the lifelike look of the sketches. Camille seemed to be really talented as far as he could tell. One could almost imagine the person stepping right out of the sketch. The thing was just, was this really a science? Could you really take a skull and see what the face it once had looked like? Because to him at least all skulls looked pretty much exactly the same.

“I’ll take them with me. Just one question, how precise is what you are doing here? Can this be used as actual identification?” 

“Well, you see, this is no real science like physics or something. There is a whole lot of experience and estimating involved, also certain factors can change your appearance and not register on the skull, so if the person has had plastic surgery for example, they might look different from the sketch. But I am good with what I am doing, so I am usually right or at least pretty close and it can be a good start. But still, in case you find something, you should double check with dental records or DNA or something, you know? Just to make sure.” Camille told him, placing the pen down on her sketch pad as she explained her job more closely to the FBI agent. Kendall listened curiously. He really was interested in this, it seemed like a really good method to identify people when you had only a skeleton. 

“Alright. Thank you very much.” He replied before leaving the brunette alone with her work again. He strode through the mostly empty hallways of the Wainwright Institute, making his way back out. While walking to his car he took a closer look at the sketches. Two were the faces of young woman, both rather pretty although without any similarities between them to really catch his eye. One was a teenage girl and three more of children. But the thing the really confused him was the fact that one of the kids was a boy. Serial murders, and he was sure this was one of them, -because honestly what were the chances that several different murders who all beat the victims dumped them in the same place- normally had a type. The varying ages of the women were strange enough, but the fact that there was a male in between them, it just wasn’t typical. Usually there was a sexual component in about 9 out of 10 cases when it came to serials, thus it often ended up being only one gender. But the boy, it just did not fit together in his head.

And also, the longer he stared at the black and white images of the dead people, recalling the seemingly countless bodies, they had found, the surer he got, that this would result to be one of the cases that kept him up at night, one of the cases where he feared to close his eyes after, because he just knew they would follow him into his dreams. There was just something about it all, that gave him a bad feeling. It was not like he could prove it, but his gut told him that the bodies were by far not the worst thing. And up until this day, his gut had never been wrong.

~°~ 

His mind was still buzzing when he pushed open the glass door to his bureau twenty minutes later. He flopped down behind his desk and started up the computer, before pulling out the sketches once again and placing them on his desk. Then he got up and went over to the small coffee kitchen. There he got his mug and filled it up with the steaming black liquid. On the way back to his office he made small talk with several of his colleagues, talking about their families and cases. When he reached his door again, he closed it behind himself. By now the computer was up and running and so he scanned the sheets of paper and then uploaded them into the missing person data bank. The program started flicking through the pictures of people that had been declared missing in quick succession, all the while comparing them to the faces in the sketches. After a couple of seconds a loud beep pulled Kendall back out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw that the computer had found a 99% match for one of the women.

Samantha James, now 22 years old had gone missing in autumn two years ago. The police had tried to find the girl, checking out any possible leads, but had come out with nothing, empty handed and not a single hint to where the girl could have vanished too. Well, sadly now they had found her. At least now her family could finally get closure on her, although of course the reason why was horrible. 

He printed out the missing person file and attached it to the corresponding sketch with a paper clip. In the meantime the program had also identified the second woman. 24 year old Elisabeth Mason had gone missing exactly four months ago. It was similar to Samantha James’ case. None of the clues lead anywhere and so they couldn’t really do that much. 

He waited for the program to finish, but neither the teenage girl nor the kids brought up any matches, and really, Kendall did not feel exactly like this was a good sign. In fact it was anything but good. 

He had started doing some paperwork from old cases, since there really wasn’t much of a lead he could have worked on that night and then finally headed home rather early in the evening. He felt bad for going home when he knew that there was such a large unsolved case, but what use was it if he sat there staring at his desk, very well knowing that it wouldn’t help. Without any clues he couldn’t do much. He had requested the protocols from Samantha James’ and Elizabeth Mason’s cases, wanting to read through them in hopes of finding anything, but they had yet to arrive and he doubted he’d find much.

~°~

The next morning he drove straight to the Wainwright’s, he needed information, clues, hints, anything, because right now he had no idea how to solve this case. And he sure hoped that the scientists would deliver something. The files about the unsolved cases of the missing women had been sent to his email last night and he’d spend his night and morning reading through the carefully made notes and looked at any kind of clue they had found. And really, the women had disappeared without any hint as to where. The investigations had been done great and throughout, but never brought anything up. Kendall had hoped to maybe find something that would help his with his case in those files but he had no luck. And so he had to place his hopes into the scientists.

“Good morning.” He exclaimed as he entered the main room. A chorus of answers was heard and Jo appeared in front of him. 

“We’ve got news.” She announced.

“That’s what I was hoping for.” Kendall smiled at her. 

“The DNA scans are done and we got rather interesting results, if I am allowed to say so.” Jo exclaimed before motioning for him to follow her. She pulled several files up on one of the screens all around the room. “You see those peeks, here, here and here?” Her finger flew across the monitor, pointing out things. “This shows us that the children are all partly related. The women aren’t interconnected when it comes to DNA, but we can prove several relations between some woman and some kids. Basically what I am trying to say is, those women were the mothers of the children and the children were fathered by the same person.” 

“They have the same father?” Kendall just had to ask. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand what Jo had just said, but he had to make sure he had heard her right. 

“Yes.” Jo answered, nodding her head slightly to accompany the words. “We are running another analysis through the FBI database right now, maybe we’ll be lucky and manage to find the guy because he’s registered.”

“He is here again?” James popped up from somewhere and looked annoyed at Kendall. “Don’t you have a job to do?” He snapped, scrunching up his nose as if he had bitten into a lemon.

“I am doing my job.” Kendall replied coldly before turning back to Jo. He really didn’t like James all that much. The brunette was just too sure of himself and acted as if he was all that better than anyone else, just because he had a doctor title. “That would be quite amazing of course, because let’s be honest, chances that he is our offender are really, really high. And if not he’s at least a good lead to start from.” He spoke thoughtfully and really, it was more than a little likely that the person who had fathered all these children could lead the investigation forward. 

“You should probably go and talk to Logan, that has to be stuff he can start to base a profile off.” Jo told him as she exited the files that were still on the screen in front of them.

“Yes, I think I am going to do that now.” The blonde nodded. “I am going to call him now. Thanks Jo.” Kendall pulled out his phone and dialled Logan’s number.

“Hey, Logan. So I’d like to get started on the offender profile for that case. Do you maybe have time today?” He explained once the other had picked up his phone.

“Uh, yeah sure. Where are you right now? At the FBI or the Wainwright’s?” Logan replied.

“Wainwright’s. Why?” Kendall questioned confused.

“I’m just on the way back from another case. I’m close. Meet you there in 10 minutes, alright?” 

“Oh, yeah sure. See you then.” Kendall replied, before hanging up the call.

~°~

Shortly later Kendall and Logan were sitting in Jo’s bureau and throwing thoughts around. The blonde scientist had been so nice as to let them use her room, so they could work without any disturbance. They were working on an offender profile, something that might prove very useful once they had a concrete suspect and were able to question him.

Profiling of course was no real science, there was no proof that what they were building would in the end fit to their offender, but generally spoken it worked in a lot of cases. By trying to figure out how the mindset of their killer worked, they sometimes would be able to understand further steps in the offender’s action or maybe even be able to understand clues better.

“I am going with male on this case.” Logan spoke up, scribbling the word down on the flipchart they were using to brainstorm. “The focus on young female victims and children suggests that very strongly.”

“Yeah, I think that the guy that is the father of all these children is very likely to be our murderer, you know? We know that some, probably all of these young women disappeared and I think he might have kidnapped them and then made father children for him. I doubt very much that most of them were okay with all of this, considering the amount of victims and the signs of beatings we found. And also, some of the victims we were able to identify simply disappeared one day.”

“Yes, definitely. Also I think-” But Kendall never heard what Logan thought, since he didn’t get much further than that. because in this very second Jo bursting in through the door in a hurry.

“Kendall!” She yelled breathless. “We got a match. We know who the guy is.”


	3. Part II

**Part II**

Those few words were all it took for Kendall to shoot out of his seat.

“You got him identified?” He questioned, already halfway out the door. “Okay, I am already on my way. Got the address of that guy for me?”

“Here, I printed it all out.” Jo spoke, while handing over a few sheets of paper. “Oh, and also take James along. He’s the one with the most complex training of us, in case you find a crime scene, he’ll be the one that could help you best.”

“If I have to.” Kendall sighed and made his way over to James’ bureau. He knocked on the door and went inside. James was sitting at his desk, typing something into his computer.

“We’ve got a match on the father. I am going there to check it out, Jo wants you to come with me in case we find a crime scene.” James looked at him motionless for some seconds before nodding. 

“I’m coming.” He pressed a few more keys on the keyboard and then got up, grabbing his jacket from the chair rest and kneeling down. Kendall watched as the brunette pulled something out of a drawer. Once the other was standing upright again, the blonde noticed that the object was a handgun.

“You sure you know how to handle that thing?” He asked sceptically. “Nothing worse than a weapon you don’t have under control.” And with that he was completely serious. You were always better off without a weapon than with one you didn’t know how to work with. 

“I’ve been shooting for years. I know what to do.” James replied coldly. “Let’s go now.” 

Kendall hesitated for a few seconds, unsure whether to trust James on that, but the decided to just follow the brunette out the door. If he managed to kill himself with his own weapon it was his own fault. Kendall had warned him.

~°~ 

A short drive later the two of them reached their destination. Kendall parked the car a good deal away from the house, behind some bushes to make sure the suspect didn’t notice them right away.

“Okay, he is filed under the name of Jason McHalson. And apparently lives here.” Kendall trailed off and looked up from the paper. “It’s kind of far away from pretty much everything.” And really the house of their suspect was located in the middle of the woods outside the city, the next neighbors had to be miles away. “If I was looking for a place to torture people, that’d be it.”

“Yes, the chances of somebody witnessing anything out here are very slim.” James replied. And there it was again. A normal person would have shown some kind of emotion when talking about a house where supposedly children and young women were tortured, but not James. Of course not James. He was cold as a popsicle when he spoke. “Shall we get in then?”

“Yes.” Kendall nodded, before letting out a short sigh. “Let me go first, I have the training in case he will react violently.” 

James grumbled something that was not exactly understandable and Kendall was pretty much sure that it was some stupid comment about how he knew very much what he was doing, but he decided to just ignore it. He pulled his gun out of its holster and released the safety catch. Slowly he neared the house always making sure to stay covered. He reached the door, gun ready to shoot and knocked loudly. 

“FBI. Please open the door.” He hollered through the door. When there was no answer after a few seconds he knocked once again before stepping back a bit. He kicked against it forcefully, resulting in the thin wooden door slamming against the wall on the inside. 

“You could have probably just pushed it open.” James commented from behind him. 

“Yes, I could have pushed it slowly open to reveal the guy standing there with a weapon and then we’d be dead.” Kendall replied sarcastically. “Like this I would have had the surprise moment on my side. I have been trained in this stuff you know? I know what I am doing. And now be quiet.” James was just being really annoying. He was the typical know-it-all that had no idea what he was talking about in fact.

The blond slowly inched inside the house. The hallway was empty. Only a few hooks on the walls with jackets hanging along them and shoes lined up orderly on the ground. The wooden floor squeaked quietly underneath their feet. 

At the end of the hallway was another wooden door that he threw open to reveal complete and utter chaos. Chairs were lying on the ground, cupboards were left open and pages of books were spread all across the room. A baseball bat was leant against one of the legs of the table and a whip was rolled up onto of it. In the middle of the chaos, a young woman was lying on the ground, next to a child who had a huge wound on his head, both of them in a huge puddle of crimson liquid.

Kendall quickly made his way over before pressing his fingers against the neck of the child and shortly later against the one of the woman. He closed his eyes both times, counting up to fifteen seconds in his mind, but neither had a pulse. Both of them were already cooling down. It was too late. 

“Dead. Both of them.” He announced and then turned around, ready to tell James to look at them closer when he noticed the brunette kneeling on the ground, hands gripped into his own hair, face distorted in pain and sobs wracking his body. 

“James?” He asked carefully before slowly walking closer and sinking down on the ground next to the other man. He didn’t get a coherent answer, more sobs was all he received from the brunette. “James, I need you to- I- Listen, I have to check the other rooms, can I leave you alone really quickly?” Kendall just didn’t know what to do. He had to make sure they were alone in the house and check if there were any victims that were still alive. And also, cold and emotionless James was on the ground, having a breakdown? Not exactly what he had expected to find here.

James nodded slightly and Kendall jumped onto his feet. He quickly checked out the living room and the kitchen which were next doors before making his way up the stairs. The upper storey had a large bathroom, a master bed room and several rooms filled with bunk beds and desks. All were empty. No more bodies and also no alive people.

Kendall took a deep breath before stepping inside the living room again. James was still on the floor, knees pulled to his chest and head buried in his hands. He sat down beside James and carefully placed his hand on the other’s back. Slowly he stroked up and down while telling the brunette to calm down. Honestly, Kendall was starting to grow worried. What was up with James? Because sure two dead people, one of them a child, were horrible, but James worked with the death day for day, so shouldn’t he be a little more composed about finding two bodies? Such a breakdown was a quite strange reaction in his eyes. 

“James, calm down. Tell me what’s up?” Kendall tried once again to get something like an explanation for what was happening right now. 

“I- It- Just-” James stuttered out before sobbing once again. He looked up at the blonde, eyes large and face smeared with tears. “I- Sorry.” He whispered. 

“It’s okay. Just, can I help you in any way?” Kendall was more than a little confused, to be honest, he had no idea what was up with James anymore.

“No.” James answered, before running his hand through his hair and brushing the tears from his face. The normal, cool and collected, emotionless mask appeared on his face again and he pulled himself up to his feet. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” 

Kendall watched confused as the brunette took a closer look at the victims, checking down their limbs with one of those strange blue flashlights, scientists carried around with them. What was that? One second he was a sobbing wreck and the next this emotionless something again. The blonde officer just didn’t get the brunette. He was normally good when it came to understanding people, but James. He just didn’t get him. 

Kendall walked around the room, looking at the stuff laying around while James was on his knees and carefully taking fingerprints from the victims, when he heard it. 

“Be quiet.” He told the brunette before concentrating on listening.

“What is it?” James questioned, receiving an annoyed glance from the other as answer. And there was it again. A quiet painful noise. Kendall crept up towards the kitchen, the place the noise seemed to be coming from. The kitchen was still empty, but the noise was clearer. It was a groan-like sob, that sounded like somebody tried to stifle it.

James appeared next to him and pointed towards one of the cupboards on the ground. Kendall nodded. Carefully he kneeled down and pulled the door open. A loud shriek came from the small girl that was squashed inside. She buried her head in her knees and tried to hide in the corner of the cupboard. He body was shaking and Kendall could make out blood on her fingers. 

“We are not going to hurt you.” He spoke slowly. “I promise. We are here to help.” He tried to put as much sincerity as possible in his voice. The girl was obviously in shock. He would have to be as careful as possible if he wanted her to come along with him. 

She didn’t even react. Kendall spend the next ten minutes trying every method the came to his mind, but all were unsuccessful. The girl wouldn’t look at him, let alone talk.

“Kendall?” James asked after quite some time from behind him. 

“Yeah?” The blonde turned to look at him.

“Would you let me try something?” James asked quietly.

“What?” Kendall was confused. James, Mr. Emotionless, wanted to get the girl to talk? How the hell was this supposed to work? 

“Please, trust me. Give me five minutes with her alone?” James’ eyes were burning into his own, some kind of emotion flickering in their depths. Kendall had no idea what it was. He hesitated, James didn’t get on that well with humans, how would he get through to the girl? 

“Alright.” He then sighed before nodding softly. “Don’t think you could make it any worse.” He turned on his heel and left the kitchen. Outside he decided that now was as good as any time to call for back up. He’d need the whole bunch of crime scene investigation as well as probably most of the people from the Wainwright’s. Kendall pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Jo’s number. Once she had picked up he told her what they had found and made sure she would make sure a team of investigators were on their way to the house. 

“But, I have to ask a favour of you. Please make them stay outside once they are here. Only tell them come inside once I tell you to.”

“Why that?” Jo questioned confused. 

“We have a survivor. But she’s quite badly shaken and I don’t think a bunch of people bursting in here would help.” Kendall explained quickly. 

“Alright. I’ll trust you. We will be waiting for your call.” Jo replied after a few seconds of silence. 

“Thank you.” Kendall answered and hung up. He wandered around the room a bit, taking a look at the books on the shelves and the rest of the furniture, noticing the huge amount of study materials that were lying around. 

“Kendall?” James stepped out of the kitchen, the girl on his hand. She shyly looked up at Kendall, her light blue eyes shimmering through the brown curls. “That’s Darcy.” The agent instantly noticed the large bruises on her arms and the part of the legs that was revealed by the dress she was wearing. She had a cut on her arms and once on her forehead. All that and she didn’t look older than ten. It just wasn’t fair.

“Hey, Darcy. I’m Kendall.” He spoke as he knelt down on the ground in front of her. 

“Hello.” She answered, quietly but firmly. 

“Does she need medical attention?” The blonde asked, looking up at the brunette. 

“I think Jo should look at her, but it’s nothing we need to hurry.” James answered before kneeling down to. “Can you tell us what happened?” He then asked the small girl.

She looked the two men in the eyes and they watched as hers grew ice cold. 

“My father had a lot of wives and children. He educated us so we could become the perfect human. If we failed he punished us, at first with beatings later with death. Emily and Jay refused to go with him when he decided to flee earlier today.” She said, motioning over to the two bodies. Kendall looked at the young girl and felt how his stomach clenched. He couldn’t even imagine what the girl had gone through, that enabled her to speak so emotionless and cold about what happened to her. “Sarah, Thomas and Will went with him. I hid and got lucky.” 

He was just about to tell the girl everything would be better from now on, when he heard a painful groan and the sharp intake of air from besides him.


	4. Part III

**Part III**

“It’s all… it’s just creepily similar to my childhood.” James stuttered out.

“Similar? What do you mean?” Kendall asked curiously.

_“JAMES! DOWN HERE NOW!” His voice boomed through the house and shook the young boy out of his sleep. He scrambled to get to his feet and stormed down the stairs, almost falling several times due to his hurry._

_“Yes, Master?” He questioned as soon as he reached the kitchen where his father sat._

_“How are the studies coming along?” One might have suspected an innocent question by a caring father, but James knew better. Of course he knew better. This man that he had to call his father was anything but caring. He was very much a monster._

_“Very well. I’ll be done with the current topics by tomorrow night, Father.” James replied politely. He was better than pretty much all of the children his father was trying to ‘improve’, but still his father was never contend, never satisfied, because while James might have been good, he still wasn’t perfect. And perfect, that was everything he was meant to be, everything he was supposed to achieve._

_“You will be done by tomorrow afternoon.” He spoke. His voice was cold, emotionless and empty, but it was clear as day that James was expected to follow the orders. He would have to be done with the studying by afternoon the next day, whether he liked it or not. It was close to impossible, he still had so much to do, but it would have to work. Somehow, it would have._

_“Of course. Anything else you wish for?” He questioned._

_“No. Except for the talk we need to have about your last work.” His father spoke and leant back in his chair. “There were close to no mistakes, son.” James swallowed heavily. Close to no mistakes was by far not as good as it sounded. Close to no mistakes meant that he made mistakes and mistakes was something he was not supposed to make. Mistakes were signs that he was not perfect and anything but perfection meant failure and punishment in the eyes of his father. He bit down on his bottom lip, so hard he could taste the metallic flavour of blood in his mouth. “Do you know what this means?”_

_“Yes, father. It means that I should be punished accordingly for my failure.” The young boy replied timidly._

_“I will go easy on you, son, because you rarely disappoint me, but still. Please take off your shirt.” James hesitated, the fear clearly etched into his face. ”Son, please take off your shirt. Refusing me won’t make this any easier on any of us. You must know I don’t enjoy this either, but I am doing it for you. To help you rise above others and mostly above yourself.” He spoke, his voice cold and emotionless._

_And really, as James took off this cotton shirt he was wearing and knelt down on the ground, his father pulled out the whip, James had seen him use on so many others before, but there was no enjoyment, no enthusiasm or delight on his face, honestly there was no emotion at all. Just the same controlled mask as most of the time. The only moments when emotion would break through that mask were when somebody disappointed him too often, angered him too much and the the pure rage would break through, turning the usually calm and cold man in even more of a monster than usually. His father might not enjoy the pain he inflicted on others, but really, for James that did not make that much of a difference. He was a monster simply for putting humans through that torture, whether he thought it would make them better or not was completely irrelevant._

_“Now, son.” The hiss of the whip as it flew down on his back was the most horrifying sound ever. Of course this wasn’t the first time he was punished like this, but each time it felt more horrible than before. The burning pain spread over his back in seconds and he felt the hot blood trickle down his back slowly. He bit his teeth together, willing the scream of pain to stay inside his mouth, because he knew screaming did not make this any better. Most the time it only resulted in more whips due to weakness._

_“You know why I am doing this.” His father spoke as the whip hissed through the air again. “I am only trying to make you better.” Three. “You will be the next step in human evolution, the perfect human being, absolutely flawless and fault proof,” Four. “but this only works when you cooperate with me, my son.” Five. “You have to want to evolve or else nothing will work.” Six. “One day the pain will no longer be necessary, but” Seven. “as long as you make mistakes, this is inevitable.” Eight. “The pain will be your master.” Nine. “It will make you learn what you need to learn.” Ten. James body sagged down a little when the last whip burned its way into his flesh, never more than ten whips was his father’s rule. Never enough to permanently damage him or his brothers and sisters, only enough to make them feel intense pain all over their bodies._

“James? James!” Kendall’s hands were suddenly on his shoulders, shaking him back into the real world and out of his memories. “What’s up with you? You just completely spaced?” The special agent asked shocked and confused.

“Sorry, memories that are rather similar to what seems to be happening here.” James mumbled out quickly. He hesitated. Should he really tell Kendall the whole story? Sure it might help with the investigation, a great deal really, but was he ready to open up this way and talk about his past with the other man?

“Talk to me.” Kendall requested suddenly.

“I- It just- My childhood wasn’t exactly what you would call good.” James stuttered out. “I’ll tell you. But first look after the girl. We need to take her to the lab. Do some quick exams and stuff.” James wasn’t sure whether he would actually tell Kendall everything. He just knew he couldn’t talk now and that they really had to look after the girl. By telling Kendall to wait he got some time to get to a decision.

Kendall hesitated for a second, contemplating whether he should take the brunette’s word, but then nodded. James was right when saying they had to look after the girl. They did not have the time for a long story right now. “Alright, let’s go.” He turned and carefully held his hand out. “Come on, we’ll take you somewhere safe, I promise you can trust us.”

Darcy looked up at him, an expression on her face way too serious for a child her age. She looked at Kendall for quite some time, obviously contemplating something. “I’ll go with him.” She then spoke mentioning towards James, catching both of them by surprise. James finally held his hand out to her and Darcy held onto it, firmly clutching the fingers in her own. Hand in hand they left the building, followed by the Special Agent, who wrote a quick text to Jo on their way out, telling her she could send the team in once they got here. And it was strange, but the second they stepped over the threshold, all of them let go of a breath they hadn’t really realized they’d been holding. The reasons for that was different with each of them, but still, stepping out into the warm summer morning was a relieve, it liberated all three of them in some way.

~°~

The moment they had entered the Wainwright’s, Camille had looked at the tiny girl and taken her in. She the small child up to one of the labs and Darcy let her do it. Nobody really understood it, since she wouldn’t let anybody besides James touch her, but somehow Camille just seemed to emit something making Darcy feel safe. So, while Camille did the examinations on the small girl, of course under the watch of Jo, making sure she actually did everything correctly, Kendall pulled James over into the brunette’s office.

“So, talk to me. What was that? And what did you tell her to make her trust you?” He inquired the second the door closed behind them.

“The story she told it’s true, I guess. And it happened before. My childhood used to be very much like hers.” James spoke, his voice cold, void of any emotion and his gaze far away. “My- The person who fathered me was a monster. He had multiple wives and children, like Darcy told you, and he too tried to build the perfect human. And it seemed to work.” He raked a hand through his hair before taking a deep breath. “By the time I was around 18, he finally seemed satisfied. I had two siblings and he thought all three of us were close enough to perfect. Still he kept beating and hitting us, he wanted to make sure we kept evolving, but he stopped bringing in new woman and begetting more children.”

“But- How-” Kendall’s face was a mask of terror and shock as he looked at the tall anthropologist.

James looked up at the blond before continuing. “Someday, I don’t even know what really triggered it, but we decided that it was enough, that we had to get out of there. My brother, he- He decided that the only way we could ever be free was to get rid of our father by killing him.” A long breath brushed past his lips as his face scrunched up. “I didn’t want to kill anybody. I didn’t want to murder somebody, I’d rather have lived on that way and my sister had the same opinion, both of us weren’t willing to stoop to the same level of violence, but my brother wouldn’t let us reason with him. And so that night, when we were preparing dinner he got a steak knife and he went and stabbed our father. We burned the body. Made sure there was nothing left of him and then left without looking back. Sarah went to Europe a few days later and Jeff just disappeared one night. And I ended up going to university while working my way through life.”

“So, you’re saying Darcy went through the same?” Kendall asked, his eyes wide as he tried to process what he had just heard.

“After what she told us? Yes. It has to be.” James spoke sadly. “Basically the offender can only be one of us three. Nobody else ever heard about it. I understand if you need to pull me out the investigation now.”

“I am not going to do that. Darcy would have never gone with you, if you were the one to torture her. But you do understand that we’ll have to get your siblings, right?” Kendall replied, while leaning back in his chair.

“Yes, I’ll get you Sarah’s number, but I have no idea where Jeff is, haven’t seen or heard from him in years.” James nodded before getting up and walking over to one of the large cupboards at the walls of the office. He pulled out a bottle filled with a clear liquid and took a few large gulps. “Sorry, I needed that.” Kendall watched him put the bottle back in the cupboard, very well knowing what the liquid was, but decided to ignore it. The circumstances probably justified it.

“I guess we can be sure Jeff is our perpetrator.” Kendall spoke after some seconds of silence. “We only found women and the children all had the same father. That pretty much rules out Sarah.”

“You should probably let Jo do a DNA check on me.” James replied. “Proving that I can’t be the father and am very likely related to them.”

“You’re going to have to tell your story again.” Kendall looked at James. “You think you can do that?”

“I am very much aware of that.”

~°~

“Okay, so I got Darcy’s results.” Jo spoke after she hung up the phone. James had just told his story to the others in their team and they had been discussing what to do next when Jo’s cell had gone off. “Everything looks great so far, all we found were some bruises, but no broken bones or internal injuries. But still she should probably spend the night in the hospital, just to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“So there were also no signs of, you know, sexual abuse?” Kendall asked uncomfortably. It’s not like he really wanted to know, but he needed. Any little piece of information could be the one main thing to catching the guy.

“No.” Jo’s answer was simple, plain and short but it was all it took for a collective sigh to go through the group.

“Okay, that’s good I guess.” Kendall replied, his voice soft. “Where is she now by the way?”

“She fell asleep on the couch in Cami’s bureau after all these tests we had to do on her. And we just thought it’d be best if we let her sleep. It looked like she needed it.” Jo explained. It was quiet for some time, all of them lost in their own thoughts, circling around the victims of this crime until Jo looked up again. “Camille, would you come with me to take her to the hospital later when she is awake?”

“Sure, no problem.” Camille sighed. “This is just so horrible.”

“I know, honey.” Logan replied. “But we can’t change it now.”

Camille leant her head against Logan’s shoulder and rubbed her face. “That’s what I hate about this job, you know too much. You can’t close your eyes from things like this anymore.”

“But you can save future victims.” Lucy spoke. “We are going to catch that bastard and he’s never going to be able to hurt anybody else.”

“I know, but like, she’s a kid. She should be having fun on a swing or something you know? And not going through this.”

“Oh, totally.” Jo exclaimed. “Swings were like the best thing ever.”

“I spend ages on the playground.” Carlos nodded, a smile bright on his face.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a swing.” James’ face was once again void of emotion, but this time all of them felt the sadness within him, even without seeing it. And now that Kendall thought about it, it finally started to sink in. He began to understand what James had missed out on in life, how many experiences he never got to enjoy. He never knew what it was to go play sports with his dead, never spend a day in a real high school, never saw a playground, probably never took the time to just play with a bunch of dry leaves on the ground, probably didn’t build a snowman or have a real snow fight before going back home and drinking the hot chocolate his mom had just made. So many things that seemed unimportant on first glance but basically made up childhood. James never got to experience this wonderful kingdom where everything was perfect. And somehow that made Kendall really sad.

“I’m so sorry James.” Jo whispered.

~°~

Kendall really didn’t know what he was doing, neither why he was doing it, when he knocked on James door later that night. He had no real reason for why he was there, couldn’t really explain it, he just felt like this was something he had to do. He’d been at home earlier, the thoughts racing around in his head. And when he had been unable to calm down, he had finally given up even trying and had gotten dressed before heading out. And so here he was, fifteen minutes later, in the middle of the night, standing in front of the brunettes door. He heard steps from inside and the James opened the door and looking confused at the blonde.

“Hello. What are you doing here? Do we have a problem?” He asked confused.

“No, just- I wanted to take you somewhere. Get dressed.” Kendall answered and continued when he saw James open his mouth. “No protest.” James tried once more to say something, but then just shook his head.

“Okay, give me five minutes.” He then spoke and held the door open, letting Kendall step inside the hallway before disappearing through a door. Shortly later he was back, dressed in jeans and jacket, keys and wallet in his hand. Kendall pulled open the door, only to be blocked by James’ hand. “I am trusting you that this is no nonsense, alright?” He questioned sternly.

“Okay.” Kendall answered, whereupon James removed his hand. They stepped out into the night and made their way down the street. It was quiet, James lived in a small neighborhood where there was no cars going by. The only sound they heard was their own steps on the ground and their breathing, that seemed to be going in total sync.

“Where are we going?” James asked after a few seconds of silence.

“You’ll see.” Kendall replied before softly grabbing hold of the other’s hand and lacing their fingers together. Warmth spread slowly from his fingers up his body and he smiled. He pulled the brunette around a corner and suddenly they stood in front of a large steel gate. Kendall pushed it open and walked through.

“Are we allowed in here?” James asked suspiciously.

“It isn’t forbidden.” Kendall answered shortly. And basically it wasn’t, but it wasn’t exactly allowed either, so there was that.

“So, why are we at a park?” James questioned after a few seconds of silence.

“Remember how we had that conversation about kids and swings back at the lab? And how you said you’d never gotten the chance to use a swing?” Kendall asked quietly.

“Yes, what about it?” James was confused. Kendall pulled him out of his house and into a park in the middle of the night to talk about a nonsensical conversation they had earlier that day? What was going on?

“Well, I thought and I can’t undo your past, I can’t give you a different childhood, but I can give you the chance to live through these experiences now. Basically I thought I’d take you swinging.” Kendall trailed off and motioned down a hill where a small playground with two swings was.

“Oh.” James breathed out. “Okay. That was not what I was expecting. But okay.” Together they walked down the hill until they were by the swings. Kendall gripped the ropes of one of the swings from behind and smiled at James.

“Come on, sit down.” He invited the brunette. James sank down onto the swing and turned around halfway to look at Kendall.

“And now?”

“Now I push.” Came the reply, followed by Kendall’s hands on his back, giving him momentum and making him fly up into the air. The wind brushed past his face, the stars coming closer and James couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up in his chest. When he swung back again, Kendall’s hands were there again, giving him another push. They spend the next few minutes like that, before Kendall stepped by side and taught James how to push himself on the swing. It took the brunette only a few seconds to grasp the concept and seconds later he was flying through the air all by himself. Kendall sat on the other swing, quickly making sure he was going as high and fast as the laughing scientist next to him.

“This is so much fun.” James exclaimed breathless when they were slowing down again.

“I know.” Kendall smiled over, noticing the sparkle in his eyes and his flushed cheeks, hair disheveled and happiness radiating off him. “But you know what’s even more fun?” He then ask mischievously, before pushing himself high into the air once again and jumping off the swing once it reached its peak.

He walked up behind James, once again gripping the ropes. “Hold tight.” He announced and then he started quickly twirling James. Once he had turned him around enough, he let go of the ropes and quickly jumped back. The blonde couldn’t help but laugh at James’ shocked face when the swing started spinning around its own axis fast. Once it had stopped James looked up at him accusingly.

“What was that?”  
“That was hilarious.” Kendall replied laughing before stepping closer again. James was on his feet by now and turned around, straight up facing Kendall. The blonde stepped closer until all that separated them was the swing. He leant forward, their noses almost touching and smiled.

“So, do you now understand what’s so great about swinging?” He asked quietly.

“Yes.” James whispered back. “It’s a lot of fun.” The smile on his face was probably the most gorgeous thing Kendall had ever seen in his life. The joy lit up James face, making his eyes sparkle in a way that seemed extraterrestrial in its beauty. It wasn’t fair that a creature as beautiful as this was born out of so much pain and misery, not fair that all he experienced in his life was gore and horror.

And then Kendall leant in. He didn’t really know why he was doing it. He was pretty sure he didn’t even like James, but maybe it was the starlight or the lateness of the hour, he really didn’t know and once James started kissing back he didn’t really care either.

The brunette’s lips were soft on his, like a fluffy cushion, and spread a warmth through his whole body. He couldn’t help himself but softly nibble on James’ lower lip, causing the other man to gasp. His tongue was trailing along other’s lower lip and somehow his brain simply switched off. All he could think of was how he didn’t want this to end. Ever.

When he pulled back after half an eternity, not because he wanted to, but because he needed to, both of their chest were moving heavily. He looked up at the brunette. James had a dazed look on his face and was staring off into space.

“Okay… er, I probably should get you home now.” Kendall whispered the second his brain woke up again and he realized what he had just done. He took hold of James wrist and pulled him out of the park towards his home. When they reached the doorstep, James still hadn’t uttered a single word and Kendall was mentally beating himself up. He didn’t like James. So why on earth did he kiss him? That was not what you acted like with your colleague. Especially not if you couldn’t stand each other.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kendall spoke, forcing his voice to be calm and not let on what kind of chaos was currently residing in his skull.. “Good night.” And then he quickly disappeared off into the night.

James watched as the lean blonde vanished in the darkness before leaning back against his door. His fingers found their way up to his lips without him making them do so, and softly he touched the place Kendall has kissed not that long ago. He sighed quietly before unlocking his door and going inside. He should get to bed. It was late. But by the time his head hit the pillow he was wide awake, pictures of green eyes, a lopsided smile and disheveled blonde hair all over his mind.


	5. Part IV

**Part IV**

  
By the time Kendall entered the lab the next morning, everybody else was already sitting in Jo’s bureau.  
“Morning.” He greeted while sneaking a glance over at James. When James didn’t even react, Kendall decided that that was all the answer he needed. He wasn’t going to mention the last night. He’d forget it. Not like it had been a bad kiss, really anything but that, but obviously a relationship between him and Dr. James McDouche Diamond would never ever happen. They were nothing alike and basically just spend their whole day annoying each other. Not the best foundation for a successful relationship.

“Morning.” He received replies from the other’s around the room.

“So, you guys are already discussing further steps I guess?” He asked once he’d sat down on one of the chairs that were still empty. He leant back against the backrest before looking expectantly at the other people in the room.

“Yes, because basically chances are high that out offender is James’ brother and if not he is at least both our prime suspect and clue, so we have to find him. The question is only how we are going to do that.” Jo spoke. She was thoughtfully playing with her blonde ponytail while thinking.

“Okay, yeah, I agree.” Kendall nodded. “I guess you could look at two new bodies a little closer, maybe there’s something that can help us and I was considering going back to the house. I didn’t really have the time to look around yesterday and maybe I can find something that’ll help us.”

“You should take me and Darcy with you.” James announced.

“Why?” Camille asked confused. “I don’t think putting the girl back in that environment is really going to do her any good.”

“It will help her come to terms with the fact that this is over and also, the place I lived in- it- it had secret rooms and hidden stuff and so on, Darcy might be able to show us places like this if there are any. It’d be faster than looking for it and time counts right now. If we wait too long he might disappear completely on us.” James explained.

“Hm…” Kendall looked at him contemplatingly. “Alright. I’ll take you guys with me.” He spoke after some seconds. “Jo, do you guys need anything? If not we’ll go and pick Darcy up from the hospital. She’s still there right? And then we’re off.”

“No, we’re good. But do me a favour and be careful with the girl, she’s gone through a lot, make it as easy as possible for her, yeah?” Jo spoke.

“I’ll do my best.” Kendall promised. And he really meant it. If he was being honest he kind of admired the little girl. It was more than obvious that she was strong, stronger than most people probably, but he wasn’t all that sure how much she’d be able to take. It was probably better if she wasn’t put through much more in the near future.

~°~

Together they went and picked up Darcy from the hospital and explained what they wanted her to do. The tiny girl agreed to help them, although it was very much apparent that she wasn’t too keen on the idea of going back to that place. And really that was only understandable. Nobody would want to go back there.

“You don’t even have to stay in there too long.” Kendall promised. “You’ll just show us how to get into the rooms very quickly and then you can stay in the car.”

“That’d be nice.” She nodded. “I really would prefer to spend not that much time there anymore.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to.” James said as he softly stroked her hair. “I know how it is, but you are our best help, if we were to search for the rooms ourself it would probably take an eternity.”

“I know.” She replied. “They are hidden very well.”

~°~

The drive had been mostly silent, not one of them wanting to speak. It had been slightly awkward, but Kendall hadn’t really known what to talk about and so he had opted for turning up the radio a little, but otherwise staying quiet. He heard Darcy suck in a deep breath once they reached the isolated house in the middle of the forest.

“Come on then.” He spoke as he got out the car. James soon joined him, Darcy’s small hand in his own.

“It’s going to be okay.” He promised the young girl. “We are not going to let anybody hurt you, you’re safe with us.”

They entered the house, this time kicking in the door wasn’t necessary, but Kendall did have a short fight with the crime scene tape that covered the door.

“Okay, now there are four hidden rooms.” Darcy spoke once they were inside. “But you can access them all over the same way.” And with these words she made her way over to one of the bookcases. She stood on her tiptoes and pulled an unimpressive book out. She opened the book, revealing it was hollow. A small remote was inside the book. She pressed a large red button on the remote and the bookcase swung back, revealing a hallway with several doors. “There’s everything you need.” She announced.

“Thank you.” Kendall nodded. “If you want, then James can take you out here again?”

“I- I want to quickly go into one room if that’s okay.” Darcy answered.

“Sure.” Kendall answered confused.

“Thank you.” She replied and then opened the first door to the left, before going inside. By the time Kendall and James had followed her, she had picked up one of the many instrument cases that were distributed around the room. “It was mine and it was what kept me going and I need it, please.” Darcy whispered, tears shining in her eyes.

“You can take it.” Kendall told her.

“Oh god.” James whispered. “This is so similar to the room we had back then. The piano looks absolutely the same.” He walked closer to the black grand piano at the other side of the room and sat down on the bench. “It had even the same scrat- It’s the same.” Tears were suddenly running down his face as he ran his hand over the wood.

“You had to play piano?” Darcy had walked up to him and placed her small hand on his arm.

“Yes.”

“You were really good, weren’t you?” She had started stroking his arm and leant her head against his chest.

“Yes and then I got out and I- I never touched a piano since then.” James replied, his voice rough. “I just couldn’t bring myself to play anymore. I even have one standing at home, because I always want to play, but I just can’t.”

“It’s okay.” She hugged him closely, burying her face in his chest and he carefully put his arms around her small frame, pulling her up on his lap.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the car.” He then spoke and got up, the girl still in his arms. Kendall followed him back outside where they left Darcy in the car, along with Kendall’s phone to play games on, before heading back to check out the other rooms.

The room next to the music room was something you could only call a torture chamber. More whips and baseball bats like the ones in the living room were lying around and a table with shackles stood in the middle. Dark stains were visible on the floor and Kendall really hoped that those stains weren’t what he suspected them to be.

“I don’t think we will find much here.” Kendall announced. The next room was a small windowless cell with stone walls and tiles. A metal toilet stood in one corner but other than that the room was bare.

“We used to have one of those too.” James whispered hoarsely. “Sometimes when you were to be punished you would have to stay here for days, in utter darkness and silence without any food. It was the most horrible thing, all the pain and the beatings and stuff, they weren’t all that bad, but this, it was pure torture.” And Kendall believed him. Just the thought of spending days, hungry and cold, alone in the darkness, where the only sound you could hear were your thoughts, sounded horrible.

Together they entered the last room which turned out to be some kind of bureau or study. There was a large desk with a computer on it, a chair, some lockers and a couch.

“Let’s take a closer look at that.” Kendall proposed.

“We could take the computer with us. Camille is good with that kind of stuff, maybe she can find something.” James suggested.

“Yes, we’ll do that. I just want to check the other stuff in here quickly.” Kendall replied before opening one of the lockers. Inside he found a couple of books, some money and a bunch of files. “It seems he documented every single child.” He spoke after scanning over the written words.

“Here is are files about the mothers.” James announced, who was looking through the locker to Kendall’s left.

After they had gone through the lockers without finding something, Kendall turned towards the desk. The surface was clean, no paper and only a bunch of pens lying around. Beneath the desk there were three drawers, the first was filled with random office stuff like more pens, a stapler, some post its, glue and more random stuff. The second drawer contained a bunch more files and then finally, in the third drawer Kendall found something interesting. He pulled the strips of paper out and looked at them more closely.

“Look at that. Five plane ticket to Tokyo.” Kendall spoke.

“He’s trying to flee.” James agreed.

“How right you are with that assumption.” A voice announced from behind them.

Both of them shot around, only to be faced with a brown haired guy and a gun aimed at their heads.

“Jeff.” James couldn’t believe it. The monster who did all this and was now threatening to kill them was his brother. The monster was the small boy he spend so many hours talking to, so many hours wishing to escape the hell they lived in and now he was putting others through the same. “Why?”

“Why what?” Jeff scoffed. “If you are wondering why I am back, obviously I need the tickets your friend has in his hand.”

“How could you? After all you’ve been through. How can you do this to others?” James was shocked, of course in the back of his mind he had known that his brother was most likely involved in this all, but seeing him standing there in front of him, it just made it all the more real to him.

“Of course little Jamesy has to act all high and mighty again.” Jeff laughed mockingly. “It’s just such a joke, you know? You were always the one with the most talent, the intelligent one, the great one, but from day one you were to afraid to actually get off your ass and do something. It’s always been like that. You’ve always been too afraid to do something and so it has always been me. I’ve always been the one to take over the helm.” Jeff had started pacing during his rant. “Without me we would still be living under that scum that was the one to give us live. Without me we would have never gotten out. Because you, you would have been able to help us, but dad was right, you were weak and imperfect. Humans are horrible, they need to evolve, you know? He was right, all along. He only wanted our best and we, we were so stupid, so caught up in our inferiority to even notice it.” Jeff was standing right in front of James now, looking him straight into his eyes, a dazed look on his face. “Father was a visionary and I am going to fulfill his dream. There will be higher humans, I will create them and his plan will work. And nothing, not even you, will stand in my way.”

“Are you insane?” James screeched. “You are completely and utterly mental. You can not actually believe that.”

“Of course you are once again to apprehensive to look the truth in the eye. You know I am right.” And in that moment the gun flew out of his hand and he slammed to the ground.

While Jeff had been ranting at James he had made the mistake of taking his eyes off Kendall. Jeff had been busy explaining his visions and plans to his half brother, while Kendall had slowly inched closer and gotten ready to attack. Once he was in the right position he had kicked the gun out of Jeff’s hand and then pressed him to the ground.

“James, get the weapon. Now.” He yelled over to the shocked brunette.

James snapped out of it and almost threw himself across the room, picking the weapon up. By that time Kendall had managed to completely pin Jeff to the ground. He grabbed the handcuffs he was always carrying with him from his belt and cuffed the murderer’s hands behind his back. Jeff was still struggling although he was pinned to the floor, but Kendall had his knee placed between the brunette’s shoulder blades, keeping him on the ground.

“Now.” He pressed out through his teeth. “Where are the other kids?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Jeff answered.

“Do. Not. Mess. With. Me.” With each word Kendall slammed his hand down next to Jeff’s face.

“Let’s tie him up in the chair over there.” James suggested.

“Okay, help me get him up.” Kendall replied and together they lifted Jeff up from the ground and onto the chair. They pulled his arms under the armrests and cuffed them together in the back of the chair. James knelt down in front of the chair and forced Jeff to look at him by pulling his chin up with his hand.

“Jeff, tell me now. Where did you leave the kids?”

“Which kids?”

“Seriously, stop fucking around. We know of them, we found the girl. She talked to us. Now, tell me where are they?” James was so close to his face that their noses were almost touching, but there was nothing romantic about it, in fact it almost looked as if James was about to rip the other’s head off, the second he got the information he wanted.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” And then James full on hit him in the face. The cracking sound echoed through the room, louder than any gun shot could have been, and blood instantly started rushing from Jeff’s nose.

“Am I making myself clear now?” James growled at him.

“I-” Jeff hadn’t even gotten the word completely out his mouth, when James had already raised his hand again. “Wait! Wait! I am talking.” Jeff finally yelled, caving in. “I left them at a motel, maybe ten miles outside of the city.”

“I am calling support. They can take him in and we’ll go get the kids.” Kendall announced, cell phone already in his hand, fingers flying over the keypad. James brushed his hands off on Jeff’s shirt before getting up from his knees again.

“Thanks for the cooperation.” He grinned mockingly at Jeff and turned to face Kendall. “I’ll go check on Darcy.”

~°~

And really, they found the missing three kids all in the motel room Jeff had mentioned. All of them, two boys and a girl were over eighteen. When Kendall and James found them, they were basically completely messed up. The capture and torture they had been in for years had massively damaged them. All three would need professional help in order to ever lead a normal life. Kendall and James were quite devastated when they found out, because really, they weren’t so sure they had actually been able to help or to save those teenagers. Their lives weren’t going to be easy in the future, but finally they just decided that anything was better than torture.


	6. Part V

**Part V**

“By the way, where’s Darcy?” Kendall asked after a few seconds of silence.

“I have no idea, but I’ll go check.” James announced. “Drinks and snacks are over there on the table, if you need anything.” He got up from the chair he’d been sitting in and left the room.

The sound of his steps on the wooden floor echoed as he walked through the hallway. He checked both bath and bedroom along the way, but the small girl wasn’t there. At the end of the hallway he reached the room where he kept the piano. The piano he never had managed to play. He wanted to, so much, because he still remembered how much it had helped back then, how he used to get lost in the music, but he couldn’t bear to actually touch the instrument. He had sat down on the small wooden bench in front of the piano countless times, opened the cover above the keys and placed his hands down. But then the simple motion of pressing down a single finger had been too hard, had been impossible to accomplish. He softly pushed the door open to reveal Darcy. The little girl was sat on the floor, next to the piano, clutching her violin to her chest, tears streaming down her face.

“Darcy?” He slowly inched closer and sank down on the floor next to her.

Her tear streaked face looked up at him.

“H-how did you... I just can’t... Whenever I close my eyes I...” She stuttered her words out, muffled by sobs. Just looking at her practically tore his heart apart.

“You’re back there. Back in that hell. You know I wish I could tell you that it will all be over in two or three days. But truth is that it’s going to take quite some time to overcome it all. It will stop following you around the day soon, but at night... It just takes time.” His hand found its way up to the unruly curls on top of her head and caressed her while he spoke.

“But... I... It hurts.” Darcy was shaking and furiously wiping the tears away, but once she’d done that they were instantly replaced by new ones.

“I know. Believe me I know. But you are strong. You have to fight through it. It will get better.” James was still stroking her hair and carefully pulled her onto his lap. She was still crying, the drops of salt water rolling down her cheeks, but she smiled through them.

“Thank you for... For just everything.” She whispered quietly.

“Well, Darcy, there is something I wanted to ask you. You do not have to say yes right away or at all really, but I wanted to give you a chance.” James slowly spoke after a few seconds of silence.

“What is it?” She raised her head, which had been buried in his chest, to look up at him.

“You know, you’re going into the foster care system and I thought that I could offer you a second option if you’d like.”

“Where are you going with this?” She asked, confusion written on her face.

“Well, I wanted to ask whether you’d be okay with me adopting you?” He replied quietly.

“Yes.” She smiled up at him. “But you have to play with me first.”

“I…” James swallowed heavily. Playing. He wanted to, but he wasn’t so sure he actually could. “I’ll try. For you, okay?”

“That’s all that I can ask for.” Darcy smiled up at him, before jumping on her feet and pulling her uncle with her.

~°~

Kendall had waited for the brunette to return to the small group, but when he didn’t after more than 45 minutes, he started to grow impatient. What was James doing for such a long time? Where did he go to? He didn’t even know why he was so nervous, it’s not like something could have happened to him in his own apartment while he looked for the little girl, but still, he just wanted to know where he was.

“I guess I’ll go then.” Jo pulled him out of his thoughts. “It’s getting quite late.”

“We’re coming too.” Camille announced, as she and Logan got up from their seats.

“Tell James thanks for the invitation. It was nice.” Lucy proclaimed as she opened the apartment door.

Seconds later the whole group was out the door and Kendall sighed. On the one hand he probably should go too, but then again he wanted to stay and check where James was and so he made his way down the hallway the brunette had disappeared in quite some time earlier. It did not take him long to reach the open door that led into the music room, revealing James sitting at the piano and Darcy next to him, her violin in her hands. They were playing together, some slow and soft classical piece and Kendall listened content as he leant against the doorframe. A smile made its way onto his face as he watched James and his niece play together, both completely into the music. The melody that floated through the room was gorgeous and so incredibly sad. It almost broke his heart as he watched the two of them. Life had been horrible to them so far, and really it was almost a miracle that a shared memory so broken, so horrible resulted in the amazing beauty of the song the two were playing.

Kendall could have probably stood there, leant against the doorframe and listening to them forever, but after a few more minutes Darcy's head suddenly fell down and the girl was fast asleep in seconds.

James carefully picked her up, a large smile on his face and left the room with his niece in his arms. Kendall had stepped back a bit, disappearing into the shadows of the hallway and silently watching as James carried Darcy over to the guest room which was now her room where he placed her on her bed and covered her with a blanket. He stood there for some time, happily watching the sleeping girl, before he turned around and left the room. He had barely passed the threshold when Kendall was suddenly in front of him.

“James? I- I have to tell you something.” He whispered quietly as to not wake the sleeping child in the room next to them.

“What’s up?” James asked curiously.

“You know how I really didn’t like you when we started this?” Kendall asked nervously. “Because I thought you were this real asshole and I really couldn’t stand you. And you always seemed so cold and as the case progressed, I just- I got to know you better and somehow you didn’t seem to be as much of an asshole as before.” He knew he was stuttering and probably not making that much sense right now. But he just had to get the words out, he couldn’t hide it.

“What are you trying to tell me? Because I am kind of lost.” James looked at the blonde and frowned slightly.

“I- I just wanted to tell you that after all this I kind of ended up liking you. And I think I might have fallen for you.” Kendall was looking down, his cheeks fiery red and his words mumbled.

James softly placed his fingers underneath Kendall’s chin and pulled the blonde’s face upwards, forcing him to look at him. He smiled softly at the blonde.

“That’s lucky, because I think I’ve fallen for you too.”

And then their lips met.


	7. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

“Darcy! Get down here! You’re going to be late again.” Kendall hollered up the stairs before returning to the kitchen again and turning on the toaster. “Get your daughter under control.” He said to his grinning husband who was nursing a cup of coffee over at the breakfast bar as he placed two pieces of toast inside the machine.

“Why don’t you do that? She’s yours too.” The brunette laughed before getting up and starting to set the table.

“So, plan for the day?” The blonde questioned while he started to scramble the eggs that were placed inside a pan on the stove.

“I’ll drive her to school in half an hour, before heading over to the institute. I’ll meet you for lunch at the diner, as always and I’ll be working late today, Tanya needs me for some press conference or something, so make sure you pick her up after choir practice and dance lessons around 4. It’d be amazing if you could go grocery shopping with her after that. I’ll be home by half past five-ish and then we’ll just see what we’ll do with dinner.” James rattled off. He was stirring together a cup of chocolate for the young girl and Kendall smiled at him. The sight of his husband being so domestic still made his heart flutter, even after they’d been a couple for several years now.

“Alright.” Kendall sighed, somehow most of their days ended up being pretty hectic nowadays. He like it, it kept them on their toes and life was never boring like that, but sometimes he wished for a quiet minute now and then. “But forget that dinner thing. The whole crew is coming over tonight for barbecue, remember?” He then reminded the tall brunette.

“Uff, yeah I forgot that. Anyways, everything else stays the same.” James replied before sticking his head out the kitchen door and shouting, “Young lady, if you are not down here by the next few seconds, I’ll drag you into the kitchen.”

“God.” Darcy groaned as she entered the room. “Stop being so hectic, I’ve got more than enough time. Chocolate?” She then questioned smiling up at her father.

“You always have enough time and then suddenly you are way too late.” Kendall grinned as he handed his adopted daughter the steaming cup James had prepared just before she had entered the room. He then placed some toast and eggs on a plate and placed it down on the table. Darcy flopped down at the breakfast bar and started her meal. James dropped his empty cup into the dishwasher and left the room.

“Everything alright?” Kendall asked as he sat down next to his daughter and pushed a brown paper bag, containing her lunch, over at Darcy. He had made her a sandwich and prepared an apple earlier on already, knowing the teenage girl always forgot to do that herself.

“Sure, sure.” She smiled up at him. “Just have this test later today that I am nervous about.” Kendall could see she was nervous and smiled at her.

“Come on, baby girl, no reason to worry, if you studied everything is going to go great. So, I’m off now.” He said as he kissed her cheek and messed up her hair. “Love you, baby girl.”

“You too, pops.” She replied, mouth full of toast.

“James? I’m going. See you later.” He shouted as he pulled on his shoes in the hallway. The brunette popped up next to him. A kiss on the lips later and a whispered exchanged of I-love-yous later, Kendall was out the door.

~°~

_And basically that was the moment I finally understood. Life could actually be perfect. You just had to understand that perfection grew from imperfection. Our family wasn’t picture perfect, to be honest, it was the farthest thing from it, but it didn’t matter. The thing was that I finally understood that it was completely unimportant that we did not fulfill all clichés._

_James and Darcy had experienced horrible things, and yes, that did not break them, but still it left scars. And I sure as hell was no dream father, but who cared. I loved James more than anything in this world and by now Darcy could really have been my daughter. Maybe we weren’t blood related, but after all the time she had been living here, we had grown as close as possible. She wasn’t the scared little girl we found in that cupboard anymore and she wasn’t a typical twelve year old. She was different from the girls in her grade, by far no typical twelve year old, but after what she had gone through, we were just happy that she was healthy. By now neither her nor James woke up screaming in the middle of the night anymore, their past was slowly starting to fade, replaced by happy memories of times we spend together. And that was more than anything I could ever asked for._

_I had two wonderful human beings with me, a wonderful little family and it was perfect in our way. I had no white picket fence out front and I didn’t have a wife in an apron that spend her day cleaning and baking, but honestly, I didn’t want it. What I had was far more perfect than any of that. Because I had finally understood that once you learned that perfection wasn’t a fact but more of a feeling and that something that one person saw as imperfect might be perfection for you, life could in fact be perfect. And I was lucky enough to have a perfect life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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